1. Field of the Invention
The present inventions relate to the treatment of a subject such as a human or non-human animal by application of focused radio frequency (“RF”) energy. More specifically, the present invention relates to localized RF heating as, for example, heating of a region within the body, such as a tumor. The application of RF energy desirably occurs in the “near field” of the RF coils.
2. Description of Related Art
Previous use of RF to treat tumors made use of a needle probe that would be inserted into the tumor. The needle was then attached to an RF source, operating at about 500 kHz. The mechanism was to heat the tumor to about 50-60 C causing its death. The heating was accomplished more from resistive heating rather than to absorption of the RF such as in a microwave oven.
Medically there are other uses for RF such as Diathermy the radio frequency energy is used to heat muscles, joints, decrease inflammation, and increase blood flow. However, in none of these applications is the RF focused, Coils are used in a general location without regard to a particular target.